- Scavenger hunts for creepy items. Print out a list ahead of time, or if the children are very young print out a list of pictures, and send the children around the house and yard searching for their items. Pair them up and the first team back wins a special prize.
- Have children move jello, popcorn, or even cotton balls from a bowl on one side of the room to a bowl on the other side of the room. The first team to fill their bowl wins. Tip: If you’re planning on doing this game with food like jello, which is tons of fun, make sure you do it outside so that you don’t end up with a slippery floor.
- Dance contest
- Make your own monster movie contest
- Pumpkin carving contest (for older kids)
- Pumpkin painting (for younger kids). Check out our popular article on pumpkin painting from last year.
- Haunted house (this involves a bit of preparation and consideration of the age of the attendees.) Choose a room or series of rooms to darken and decorate. Gather family members or neighbors to help out with the haunting. The following are some props that you can build yourself to make your haunted house the best one on the block:
- Coffins, tombstones and walls can all be created from cardboard boxes.
- Skeletons and bones can be bought for less than $10 at your local dollar store or Halloween specialty store. You can also make them with clay or paper mache.
- Monster cage can be created easily with PVC pipe and cardboard boxes.
- Bats and spiders can be made with paper, black socks, felt and much more. Cut out shapes and hang them with black thread or fishing line.
- Mazes can be made from boxes and/or PVC piping and sheets. Mazes make it easy to create hiding places for scary props and people.
- Dinner anyone? Create a meal fit for a monster by placing a stuffed mask on a small table (Severed head) and setting the table for a meal. You can even place a monster at the table ready to dine.
- Spooky pictures can be created by buying cheap frames or making them yourself. You can place real heads behind the frames or print out scary pictures and frame them.
- Glow in the dark paint creates a fantastic effect. You can also find glow in the dark stickers, chalk, and more.
- Hire a witch or dress up a family member and invite them to stir their cauldron and cackle to their hearts content.
- Hidden effects offer great surprises. You can hide props where people least expect them, like behind the bathroom door. You can stuff panty hose, place a shoe on them and have a leg sticking out of a closet or cupboard.
- Hay rides are also great events that take a little extra preparation. If you have the space and means to provide a hay ride, they can be a fantastic outdoor excursion. Of course you’ll also need to have a plan B in the event of rain.
Find Out how to create Halloween Pumpkins That Outlast Carved Jack-O-Lanterns By Months! Click here!
What are some classic Halloween party games for kids?
Table of Contents
Bobbing for apples is the quintessential Halloween game — peel the apples and call them ‘brains’ or carve faces into them to make it spookier. A candy corn counting jar is simple to set up: fill a jar with candy corn, have kids write down their guesses, and award the jar to the closest answer. Scavenger hunts — either with a written list for older kids or a picture list for younger ones — get everyone moving and pair perfectly with a Halloween theme.
How do I set up a Bowls of Goo game for a Halloween party?
Fill several bowls with food items and give them creepy names: peeled grapes become eyeballs, cold cooked spaghetti becomes guts, and pumpkin guts become brains. Let kids dip their hands in and guess what they are feeling. For a competitive twist, hide three marbles in each bowl and challenge kids to find the ‘eyeballs’ with their feet — the team that recovers all three marbles first wins.
How do I build a DIY haunted house for a kids Halloween party?
Start with cardboard boxes — they make excellent coffins, tombstones, and walls. Pick up skeleton props for under ten dollars at a dollar store or Halloween shop, or make your own from clay or paper mache. Use PVC pipe and cardboard to build a monster cage, hang bats and spiders made from paper, black socks, or felt with black thread, and create a maze from boxes and sheets. Glow-in-the-dark paint and hidden props behind doors or in closets add the best scares.
What Halloween party activities work well for younger kids?
Keep it manageable and age-appropriate. Pumpkin painting is ideal for younger children — far safer than carving and they love it. A simple dance contest or a ‘move the cotton balls’ relay race (using a spoon to carry cotton balls from one bowl to another) keeps energy high without anything too frightening. Pair up younger kids with older siblings or parents for games like scavenger hunts so everyone stays comfortable and included.
2 Comments